REX RYAN, BILLS HEAD COACH

RR:  Obviously, tough game, no question about it. We knew it was going to be a tough game. That's an outstanding football team we played [and] they proved it again tonight. The difference is that they made more plays. They [got] a big turnover, they got a touchdown [and] we just [had] to make a tackle there, so, we knew we were a better football team, but we just weren't good enough, we're not quite there. Obviously, we've got some huge challenges in front of us - we've got to play in another short week again on the road - which is two out of three games. The NFL [is] not doing us any favors, but you know what, it is the way it is. We've got a lot of guys banged up. It was tough to match with them personnel-wise, but they did a great job. That's a good football team and they deserved to win and we know right now we just have got to find a way to get better - each man get better, each coach get better and when we do, we'll see if it's a different outcome.

Q: Is there any concern with Tyrod Taylor holding his right shoulder throughout the game? Will he be ready for the game in Kansas City?

RR: I have no idea. I hope he's ready.

Q: Is there any initial word on his injury?

RR: No. I asked him at the end of the game, but he said, "No coach I'm ready to go." So I was going to go with [EJ Manuel], but he said he was ready to go.

Q: You got at least a dozen hits on Tom Brady. What's the difference between what you were able to do tonight in terms of pressure and blitzing?

RR: Well, I think we have a better understanding of each other. I think now, I know what this team has, what we are capable of doing and quite honestly, it was more true to playing Bills defense, to playing our defense and I think we understand that a little bit better than Week 2.

Q: Do you feel that this was game that was right there to be taken? You had them in many situations tonight and just didn't finish it off.

RR: No, but to their credit, they made some big plays. The thing at the end, we were close to catching a touchdown pass, we don't convert, missed the field goal, they get the ball back and they didn't have to score but they did. [If we] made the tackle we would have been off the field and unfortunately, that kid makes a great run and was able to knock it in the end zone. That one really hurt us, but to their credit they made that play.

Q: You didn't target Sammy Watkins or Charles Clay in the first half. How does that happen?

RR: That's a good question. We've got to look at it and obviously we tried to spread the ball around, but those are two guys that we need to get the football to.

Q: Was it a case of lost opportunities? LeSean McCoy had the ball in the end zone and there was another play where Chris Hogan seemed to be open and the ball was underthrown. Then there was the fumble in the second half - you're so close and yet it seemed you shot yourself in the foot.

RR: But, like always, we've come up short many times being here when you think you've got them by the ropes, but at the end of the day, they find ways to win and that's what championship teams do, and we're not at that level right now, but I can promise you one thing, we're going to work our tails off to get there.

Q: On the drive for the field goal and even at the end it seemed like it was taking a while to get plays in. How much of that was Tyrod's injury? Was that part of it at all?

RR: No, that wasn't it. Was it communication? I'm not real sure.

Q: You had EJ warming up there. Was the thought to bring him in? Take us through that thought process…

RR: Yeah, when I saw what you guys saw with the shoulder, I wanted to make sure my kid was okay. I wasn't going to put him out there if I had ever felt he wasn't okay and I wanted assurance that he was, but I made sure EJ was ready to go in there.

Q: You may have answered the question already, but the thought was maybe Tyrod couldn't chuck it down the field and maybe EJ could?

RR: Well, no. He threw deep passes, actually over Sammy's head on that one, so it looked like he had plenty of arm strength or I wouldn't have put him out there.

Q: What did the referees tell you on the Danny Amendola play? How did they explain that to you?

RR: The same way they explained it to you guys. It was an inadvertent whistle and then it goes to a spot and then apparently I get a 15-yard penalty on me at the same time and [the refs] blows the whistle and I'm like, 'He blew the whistle,' and our pass rusher lets up and everything else and they complete the ball, so I'm not sure what happened there.

Q: Did they explain it?

RR: No. I'll let them explain it. They do a much better job. They are much more articulate than I am.

Q: Speaking of officiating, did you have any question about Sammy [Watkins], whether he was out of bounds or not on the final play?

RR: I thought he was out of bounds, but it's the two minutes, so that's their discretion. The guy was standing right on top of it.

Q: During the game, [Tom] Brady called your name while calling signals in the opening drive. Were you aware of that?
RR: He was calling what - my name?

Q: 'Rex Ryan', as he was calling signals on one of the plays pre-snap, were you aware of that?

RR: He likes me, I know that. I was calling him Brady, too.

Q: Rex, coming in you talked about the Patriots defense. I mean, they only gave up 13 points. Do they have a better defense than people realize?

RR: I think so. I think this is about as good a defense … It's not back there with the [Tedy] Bruschis and all those guys, I don't think yet, but they are pretty darn good. At this time they are playing the run extremely well and they are doing a great job in the back end, so you know, usually it is the defense that really bends and doesn't breaks, but they are being much more aggressive this year and it looks like a better defense.

Q: Your own defense was about to get a lot of pressure on Tom, what were you doing different this week?

RR: We were playing our defense.

Q: Were you blitzing more though?

RR: We were blitzing, we were doing four-man rushes, simulated pressures, doing things that this defense needs to do.

Q: Does it make you even more frustrated that that was not a good performance, on the whole, by Tom Brady?

RR: Well, it is better than some of the days that he has had against me, you know, against us. You know, he had 277 yards passing, and looking here, a 72 quarterback rating. But you know what, the guy is a stud, he is 20-of-39 passes. You know, the guy, he's smart. He gets rid of the ball when he needs to, he doesn't take risks and sometimes the best plays are the ones you don't make. He knows what to do with the football. You know, obviously one of the best ever.

Q: Any thought on that fourth-and-short of going for it?

RR: Yeah, I thought about it, but when we got a two-yard loss, I'm like, 'Let's just pin them down and make them go three-and-out, have faith in our defense and we will get the ball back again.' But yeah, I absolutely thought about it, I was going to, but we ended up losing two yards and I can't lose the game on this call. Let's punt it down and I have more faith in our defense to get it stopped and then we will figure it out. But absolutely, I was thinking about it. And I was going to, had we stayed inside a yard.

Q: Back to not getting the ball to [Sammy] Watkins and [Charles] Clay, was the passing too conservative, especially early?

RR: Well, no, I thought it was just the opposite. We had some vertical shots there, it's a lot of time you have to give the pass rush credit. You know, they were able to move us. I thought we had some guys open, but you know, they did a good job. We couldn't really sit in that pocket the way we wanted to and deliver some of those.

Q: How serious was Mario Williams' foot injury that he wasn't able to play?

RR: Well, he wasn't able to come back and that was a huge loss for us. I mean, obviously, he was playing really well.

Nigel Bradham, Linebacker

*(On the play of the defense) *
"In the end we lost. It doesn't matter how well we played, we didn't play well enough to win the game. It's just one of those things, gotta play better, gotta play good enough to win."

(On mixing up the coverage)
"We really were just trying to knock off their timing. We didn't really blitz a lot, we really were just rushing two or three guys a lot. But those guys up front, they did a tremendous job of getting to the quarterback."

*(On there still being a lot to play for) *
"We knew that coming into this game. We definitely wanted this one real bad. We still got a whole season. We're still in the hunt."

Corbin Bryant, Defensive Tackle

*(On the game) *
"We did our best to get Tom [Brady] going, but we didn't achieve it tonight. They have beaten us a lot and it stings a little bit, but we can't let it get us down. We have to move on to Kansas City and we are still in the race. We have to get out here and get healthy and go out and get a win in Kansas City."

(On getting frustrated)
"I don't get frustrated. The day after the game it is over with and there is nothing we can do about it. We watch the tape and go and see what we could have done better. They just made more plays than we did. "

*(On where Bills could improve) *
"We could have done things a little bit better. We could have gotten to him [Brady] more and done some things better. We shouldn't have allowed that touchdown at the end and sometimes when we face a great player like [Tom] Brady these things are going to happen."

Stephon Gilmore, Cornerback

*(On his interception) *
"I was running with my guy and I turned my head around. Corey [Graham] made a good play to knock it out of the receiver's hand and tip it up. I was in the right place to pick it off."

(On the defense)
"We knew what they were going to do. We knew every route. We knew everything but there were one or two plays that you wish you could have back. I don't think they would have scored but you can't have those one or two pays against New England."

*(Asked if the Bills deserved a better fate) *
"Yeah, I think we did. It's a team game. Sometimes we need guys to pick us up and sometimes we pick guys up. It is a team game and we know that. We are all in this together."

Chris Hogan, Wide Receiver

*(On the game) *
"Yeah, a play here or a play there that we didn't make or a call didn't go our way. It came right down to the end of the game. It was a one-score game and I was really proud of the way this team played. We are going to learn a lot from this film. We moved the ball really well on them, but we just didn't make a couple of plays here or there."

(On the constant stopping and starting of the game impeding the pace of each team)
"It was one of those games. There were a lot of reviews going back and forth, but I thought we put together a couple of good drives, but we really just have to finish. We have to make a couple of more plays."

*(On how disappointing the loss was for the team) *
"We wanted this one really bad. It would have set us up pretty well, a three-game winning streak and we would have beaten the Patriots, but it doesn't matter. We have to forget about it and move on because we still have a good shot at doing some big things here. We have to move on to Kansas City next week and go from there."

Richie Incognito, Guard

*(Asked if the Bills deserved a better fate) *
"No.  We played to that outcome. We had some opportunities to win the game and we couldn't put it away."

(On the defense)
"The defense did a really good job. They held them and got us the ball in good field position. We have to come through and score more points."

Manny Lawson, Linebacker

*(On facing an offensive team like the Patriots) *
"It is like you said, it is hard to face them. We did some good things and we did some bad things. The bad things we did, we have to correct and continue to play ball."

(On stopping the run game)
"We try and make a team one dimensional and on that direction we lead them to two paths. We got some guys that can cover and we got some guys up front that can get after the quarterback and if we can shut down the running game and make it a passing game, we think we stand a better chance."

*(On trying to defend Tom Brady) *
"A lot of it had to do with getting him [Brady] off his spot and making him see different looks. We didn't pressure too much and we really only ended up rushing three guys or four guys. We didn't come with our full team. If we can get him off his spot and make him worry about his feet, we would stand a good chance of competing with Brady."

(On playing the number one team in the conference)
"We can take a lot of positives from this. One of the things is, to go where we want to go, we have to beat teams like this. It is going to come down to these types of games where one score decides it all. That's what we are going to do." 

LeSean McCoy, Running back

*(On having a shot to win) *
"We have to put more points on the board; start executing. I thought today I really didn't play up to my standards to be honest. Some of the plays I should have made, I didn't. I'm only speaking for myself."

(On the missed touchdown pass in the end zone)
"I didn't even know he was there. If it touched my hand, I got to catch it. It's as simple as that."

*(On Tyrod Taylor) *
"In the game you take hits, it's a physical game. I don't know how serious it is. I mean he threw a bomb from the same shoulder, so I don't think it is that serious."

Leodis McKelvin, Cornerback

*(On the fumble) *
"You saw it. He came up from behind and pushed it out. It is the easiest way you are going to get a fumble, when somebody comes up from behind and you don't see them. He just punched it out."

(On playing New England)
"We made mistakes. We had mishaps and things went against us. They capitalized off of those mistakes. That is what happened. Coming into halftime we thought, 'don't give up points going into halftime'. We got them where we got them.  Brady came back out and he does what he does. He took them right down the field and got seven points.  That is something we don't need. We need to go out and get our defense off the field and stop beating ourselves."

Sammy Watkins, Wide Receiver

*(On the missed field goal and Patriots touchdown at the end of the first half being critical to the outcome) *
"Most definitely. We were playing well on both sides of the ball. We got great stops and drove the ball down the field. As an offense, I think we really did well, but we had a couple of three-and-outs and those are things we can't let happen."

(On whether he thought he got out of bounds on the final play of the game)
"I don't think I was moving forward. I was moving sideways, so if your momentum is not moving forward that means time will keep running."

*(On whether he felt he had enough opportunities) *
"Most definitely, but they [Patriots] dealt with me. Chris Hogan made big plays. Robert Woods made plays and we ran the ball well. It's not about getting targets, it's about winning."